Photosynth lets you swoop through 3D space and Create Panoramas on the Fly

Photosynth is a powerful set of tools for capturing and viewing the world in 3D. You can share your creations with your friends on Facebook, publish them to Bing, or embed them in your own blog or Web site. Here’s the big picture:

In this talk from TEDGlobal 2013, Blaise Agüera y Arcas of Microsoft introduces us to the new Photosynth, a set of tools which lets the everyday photographer create swooping, movement-filled 3-dimensional panoramas of spaces that look like they were created by special effects masters.

…While these new “synths” look Steadicam-smooth, they’re made by everyday users with cameraphones, snapping anywhere from a dozen to 100+ images, often sans tripod. And it’s a quantum leap from the already-jawdropping tech of his viral demo.

…Says Agüera y Arcas, “We can use the movement of the camera to reconstruct parallax in 3D from that set of photos. Instead of taking the set of photos and trying to fuse them, as we did with the original panorama app, we can leave them unfused and reconstruct 3D, and generate these kind of swooshy, continuous things.”

The results are true three-dimensional panoramas, where the depth of field changes and things move in and out of focus as the viewer swipes or moves their mouse….

Check out his excellent talk and demo here:

And check out this incredible scene captured in a cathedral:

Mind blowing. No need for film sets or location permits any more, eh? Check out the Photosynth web page here to learn how to make your own synths.